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★★☆☆☆
The truth about the Noco boosters
I want to clarify the specs and functionality of the NOCO GB40. Noco writes that it can produce 1000 Amps 3s, what does this mean? I see many mistakenly think it means to say that it can produce 1000 cranking Amps. This is just a tricky marketing technique. The answer can be found in some small wording on NOCO's website "The GB40 has 7,035 starting joules over a three second time span". So Noco says it can produce 1000 amps within 3 seconds so that would be about 330 amps (per second) available to crank the engine. Aside Noco's claims, how many Amps does it actually produce? I have tested it on several vehicles and used an Amp meter to measure the current. The results* where 210-230 Amps. The temperature during these tests ranged from 60F to 70F. Since the weather now is warmer I could not do a cold engine test but I did put the battery pack in the freezer to see the discharge rate when cold. The results are bad, 50-70 Amps. I have a dilemma, how should I rate this product? The product is actually built very well, strong casing, nice feel, heavy duty clamps, wire gauge is ok, good safety features. The issue is about misrepresenting the product. Dishonest description should be a reason to give it 1 star but the product does work well within its capable means. Practically speaking, the noco GB40 is capable of starting the typical engine in a standard vehicle with a partially drained or even with a completely dead battery hence the many good reviews. But I would not rely on it. An example of a typical no start would be during the winter, a weak battery that has been working fine is now struggling in the cold (or accessories have been left on), you think you have 220 Amps available to start your car, but in reality you don"t because the booster will most likely be stored inside the vehicle and in frigid weather it will produce less than 70 Amps, even if the car's battery is only partially drained and can produce 100+ Amps, the 170 Amps coming from both batteries may not be enough to crank a very cold engine. Yes, it can start a car in the cold, but that would depend on how much the car's battery has drained, therefore I would not rely on this. P.S. Check the reviews on youtube doing cold starts, they are not getting out the booster pack from the car. *The test vehicles where equipped with either Honda's V6 3.5L or Hyundai V6 3.8L. The Noco GB40 was able to start (sometimes) both engines while disconnecting the car's battery, and also with a completely dead battery connected (it is harder to start up a car with the dead battery connected because it steals some juice from the booster). It did not start it up all the time, and when it did it cranked weakly.
June 2016 · Automotive
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